Doors, Windows, and Corrugated Metal

We affectionately call our garage the "barn" because, well, it looks like a big white barn! Given that I love pretty much nothing barn-like, it's not the shape we'd keep if we were building our dream garage, but the traditional shape does fit well with our neighborhood. We were looking for a way to keep the existing roofline and structure for our garage, mainly for budget reasons but also to have less of a mess on our hands. Plus, "location, location, new construction" doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?!

I got excited about our structure and how to modernize it for the first time when I visited Cornerstone Sonoma (modern art + gardens) while out in Sonoma this past summer for my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's wedding. Cornerstone Sonoma had several structures there that are similar to ours, that were cladded in corrugated metal. I'd never considered corrugated metal before, but Mike always liked it as an accent material on modern California-type structures. So we were sold.

Take a look at the structures below:

Same structure/roofline as our garage but in corrugated metal

A closeup on the corrugated metal (no, I don't know this guy)

A closeup on the metal pattern

More metal here on the left of this photo

This darker gray is the color I want to go with for our garage.
Our house is light gray with charcoal trim, and the garage color
will pick up on the trim color from the house.

Cool side view with a door similar to ours

Pretty sure this is a different material than corrugated, but I liked the pic

Again the darker gray, and showing the idea of wood doors paired with it

More wood + metal

So corrugated metal cladding is the plan. We know we want the charcoal color and we are running it up and down lengthwise, like the first pic on the page. Now we are just finalizing the pattern of the metal, which is a whole other story.

As far as windows go, we decided to match the windows on our house, which are original from the 50s. Eventually we'll replace the windows on the house, but will keep the same frame style as shown. 

Garage will have 2 single windows on the front face that will get the same
horizontal frame pattern as shown here

And for the doors....

We have 3 doors on the back of the house, near where the garage is. They are all a 5-pane style like the below picture, so we thought this would be a good design cue to take forward into the garage. We have a side door entrance on the garage, so we'll have this same door made for that.

New side door entrance to garage will be the same door.

For those of you that remember how important the front door of the house was to me, you won't be surprised that the big front garage door has also been a search for an original :)

Front door of house

We decided to do one big garage door, versus the two smaller doors we have now. Seems to be the trend these days. Even more reason to have a good door!

After a good bit of searching, we found a place that would make a custom door as shown below.

It will be wood, marine grade to withstand the weather. The gray boxes shown are windows, again taking a cue from the 5-pane doors on the back of the house. These windows will get the same frosted glass as the sidelites flanking the front door of the house.

Check out Carriage House doors if you are interested in a custom door

I can't wait to see this new door!!! I am hoping it's the best after-Christmas present yet.

Happy Thursday and more later!

Garage – Here we go

Happy New Year to everyone!

In keeping with a fresh start to the year, we are finally starting on our garage renovation.

Here are the before ("now") pictures – I love looking at these after the fact!

Right when we moved in. 

Last month – notice how we painted the front when we moved in, but not the sides?
Classy move, I know, haha. We knew we'd be doing this reno soon so it would be a waste of $.
However as you can see, the front doors were enough of an eyesore that we needed to paint them
just to get us through temporarily!

This is upstairs. It's basically a large open room. Really disgusting and dirty.
This will eventually be a rec room/potential bedroom.

This is as you are coming up the stairs on the landing of the large open room.

Debris on the roof outside of the back

This is downstairs, as you walk in the side door to the back part of the garage.
This will become a kitchenette eventually

This is also downstairs, as you walk in the side door to the back part of the garage and see the
staircase upstairs is to your left. This will become a kitchenette eventually and there is a
bath in the back, that will update and expand.

This is the inside of the bathroom. To be honest this is as close as I was getting to take this picture.
You know Mike and I can stomach a lot with a reno, but it's pretty gross in there.

This is the front part of the garage that is and will be the true "garage" part of the garage.
Eventually we'll have shelving, hooks, hopefully a workstation in here.

Another view of of the front part of the garage.

Another view of of the front part of the garage and you can see the door that connects
the front part to the back part.

And here are the plans. You can see the changes to the exterior, and the layout on the
upstairs and downstairs, front and back portions. More about materials selections
and our layout choices, soon.

The old siding got ripped off today:

And so it begins!

Beginning Projects | Finishing Touches

Alright alright, I know I said I'd post about the garage remodel like weeks ago. The garage isn't moving as fast as I hoped so I don't have our final drawing to post yet. We did sign a contract, put down a deposit, and have made a fair amount of headway on design. We had a structural inspection that we are waiting on results from.

So I'll leave you with the garage in all of its current glory! Haha.

In the meantime, here is the latest in and around the house as we have done a bit of accessorizing:

New welcome rug added to front hallway, at a good price from West Elm 

Got that Platner table we were considering for the living room.
(See it in the foreground here next to the couch).
It was the Semi-Annual sale at DWR, so good timing,  

Second view of Platner table

Accessorized the new Rubix table with this Tubular Burst from Dwell.

Closer up on the Tubular Burst

The clock in the guest bedroom kicked it
and gave us an excuse to get this little beauty—
the tripod clock by George Nelson. I even love the box!

Here it is happy in its new home

In the backyard where we lost a dogwood tree, we transplanted a fairly mature
walking stick tree from my parent's yard. Around it we planted more
Creeping Jenny and Autumn Ferns.

I'm including a picture of the screen porch because it's the end of fall (and daylight savings),
and we have loved spending so much time the past few months on this porch!

And here are a couple of pics from our last dinner party:

We bit the bullet on a set of tables and chairs to avoid repeated rental fees.

That being said, I still got the copycat version of the real Tolix chairs – it was

just too many to make that kind of investment. Very happy with how they look though.

We hung Napa style lights from small hooks under the house
and anchored them to a fence post that Mike cemented in a 5 gallon
bucket. That way we can just roll it in when we need extra light on the deck!

Happy Monday everyone. Will report back soon...

Summer Snapshot

Hi everyone,

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? So sorry for the MIA move. We have been doing some stuff, although at a slower pace than normal. Slow pace is not for long, as we are ramping up for a full garage reno. More on that in a bit. In the meantime, here are a few pics from our house summer (where did the time go?!):

The Nest  has finally found its home in our home! I don't care how it
works to be honest — it could not be prettier :)

(Since by day I am a graphic designer, I appreciate all the nice packaging as well)

The deck was stained! It's not the final color, but it was recommended
to us to go light at first and let the wood settle/acclimate. It gives us a
chance to get used to the color, too, and decide where to go from here next year.

The new Rubix side table from DWR has landed in our LR. Happy
with how it looks, and just a bit more to go in here!

Next up we need a piano bench (undecided) and a table for the opposite
side of the couch – thinking the classic Platner side table would be a good
fit there. Here it is:

Acquired this fabulous print of Palm Springs poolside by Slim Aarons a few weeks ago—
couldn't be more in love. It's at the framer's now, but will be going in this bathroom with the green tinted mirror.

So as far as next steps beyond this summer... we've been working on the garage planning. We have plans (started), have a contractor selected and on board, and are going to get rolling SOON! I will put up a post about that in the next week. Check back in..

Here we go again :)

Room for Living

Hope everyone is having a good summer so far!

We finally have a living room that looks like, well, looks like someone lives here, so I thought I'd post updates...It's quite lovely to walk through a room and actually have furniture in it, albeit minimal furniture!

Living Room - Current Status

Those chairs you see in the background (Dining Room) are the Saarinen Executive Armchairs that I found on One Kings Lane several months back. It took a while to figure out what to recover them in, and thanks to everyone who cast their vote:

Before: Vintage mid-century banana yellow vinyl !!

After: Grey soft leather circa 2013 :)

For an early birthday present, Mike got me some accessories I wanted. They are from a Czech company called Sklo who handblows glass into sculptural objects – each piece is different. Here are a few I love:

I ended up with one of their Glass Knots in white, which went in the Dining Room

And the Tilt Vase in champagne, which is on the temporary end table
beside the couch in the Living Room

Speaking of temporary end tables...we are considering the following for a more permanent solution:

Helix table, DWR

Eames Side Table with Walnut Top

Rubix Table – with Various Tops

Platner Side Table

Decisions to happen sometime soon(ish)...

The last thing I'm really excited about was a surprise score from the Floor Sample Sale happening right now at DWR: A Wishbone Chair from Hans Wegner – for our office. 

Wishbone Chair from Hans Wegner

Don't you love a good find?!